Officials: Needs at jail dire

Posted: Thursday, November 08, 2007

Sometime soon, Athens-Clarke officials know they're going to have to build a jail.

The questions are when and how much it will cost taxpayers.

The Athens-Clarke Commission will give the Clarke County Sheriff's Office $400,000 to pay for about two months of shipping inmates from the overcrowded county jail to one in South Georgia. The expense prompted discussion at a commission meeting late Tuesday night on when and how the county would expand the jail or build a new one.

"I would be greatly surprised if we're able to avoid, at some time in the not-so-distant future, (adding) a significant number of beds at our current facility or building a new jail," county Manager Alan Reddish said.

Expanding the jail from 377 to about 600 beds would cost at least $30 million, and building a new jail $60 million, according to the sheriff's department's past estimates.

The county government could pay for the jail by going into debt or waiting until voters approve a new round of sales-tax projects in 2010 - or face a potential lawsuit, Reddish said.

"The third option is a federal judge telling you to build one, and you'll be levying a property tax in that particular year," he told commissioners.

Athens-Clarke County built an infirmary and other facilities at the jail in the mid-1990s under orders from a federal judge.

"Since none of you have been under a consent order, it's not fun," said Harry Sims, the only current commissioner who was in office at the time.

The number of inmates in the custody of the sheriff's department routinely is more than 400 and sometimes rises above 500, but the jail has the capacity to hold only 360 inmates.

The overcrowding is unsafe, according to Sheriff Ira Edwards, who is working to reduce the overcrowding by paying Irwin County $45 per inmate per day to transport and house inmates.

Edwards asked for $1.4 million to "house out" inmates through the end of the fiscal year in July, but the commission sided with Reddish, who recommended spending $500,000 and ordering Edwards to give them a report by Dec. 1 detailing how he's working with police, prosecutors, judges and the county court administrator to reduce the jail population.

Commissioners cut the amount to $400,000 after Edwards told them he did not have the $150,000 in an inmate trust fund he controls that Reddish had wanted him to contribute. Edwards said he is using the trust fund - money inmates spend on commissary items and other sources - on rehabilitation programs, services like haircuts for indigent inmates and maintaining the aging jail.

"The jail is falling apart, certain parts of it," Edwards said.

Overcrowding likely is to continue hitting taxpayers hard.

Edwards already has spent $700,000 since July housing out inmates. Most of the money the commission gave him Tuesday will come out of the county's $500,000 contingency fund. Edwards also is likely to ask for more money early next year that would be paid out of an $8 million emergency fund.

The commission will have to replace whatever it takes out of the contingency and emergency funds, and also increase the sheriff's budget next year - a total expense that could approach $3 million.

Reddish said Edwards should be working with local judges and the state Department of Corrections to move inmates and state prisoners through the system more quickly, and using satellite tracking systems to place nonviolent offenders and accused criminals awaiting trial on nonviolent charges under house arrest. Those measures would ease the burden on the chronically understaffed and overcrowded jail, but only temporarily, he said.

"There's a limit to what they can do," Reddish said. "I still think there's some things that ought to be very aggressively pursued."

Mayor Heidi Davison said she wants proof of cooperation and accountability from Edwards and other law enforcement officials.

"We want to know what it is they're doing and planning to do," Davison said.